


Change

by twolookattwo



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:44:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twolookattwo/pseuds/twolookattwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Events from Steve's past catch up with him; causing Danny to question everything he knows and feels about his friend and partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change

**Author's Note:**

> The tittle is taken from the Deftones song Change and is kinda the thyme song to this. NO beta.

“Usual place?”

Steve asks Danny over the sound of wind rushing into the Camaro.  In the evenings Steve likes to role the windows down and breathe. There’s something about the air in Hawaii that calms and sooths him.

Danny is leaning back with his eyes closed also seeming to enjoy the breeze, “there’s a new place not far from here; I heard they have good wings.”

“Yea I know the place.”

\---------

They walk in and head straight for the bar. The décor of the place is what a decorator would call “delightfully eclectic”, but Danny would call schizophrenic. The lighting is low like a bar tailored for intimate conversation, but it clashes with the sports memorabilia all over the walls and the island themed light wood furniture. Danny looks around and raises an eyebrow, “the wings better be good here.” Steve turns to him at the bar and smiles as he turns to the bartender and asks for two long boards.

“Hey Marshall!”

The smile on Steve’s face is replaced with a blank hardness that Danny’s never seen before.

“Teddy get your limey ass over here!”

Steve turns to Danny and says in a tone that he only uses when they’re under heavy gunfire and back up is still ten minutes away, “stay here.” Then Steve pastes a smile on his face that would look false and sick to anyone who knew him. He turns toward the voice, throws out his arms and says in a pitch perfect British accent, “Pete you daft shit!”

 He moves over to the booth and is pulled into a hug by a 5’10’’ balding redhead.  “Pete” looks like a boxer put to pasture; hard muscle with a thick layer of soft fat on top.  Steve settles down on the bench across from him , “good to see you mate. I haven’t seen anyone from the old crew in, what is it, six years now.”

Pete sighs, “yea, most of the old crew is dead now, dead or in some fucking high security hellhole. Everything fell apart when Cicero was taken.”

“Yea,” Steve looks down at the table. “I was running late that day. I saw them going in to take Cicero. I knew it was over for him so I turned and legged it.”

Pete put his beer down and slapped Steve lightly on the shoulder, “Hey don’t feel bad, man, any one of us woulda done the same thing. I’m just glad I was out on business when they hit the place otherwise I’d be dead or down a hole somewhere like Cicero and the guys with him.”

Steve looks up, “yea, maybe. So what are you doing now?”

Pete grins up at Steve, “after Cicero got disappeared I decided that I was tired of working for the man making all the money, so I decided to go into business for myself.”

Steve smiles and shakes his head, “good for you, mate.”

Pete takes a slow pull from his beer, “so what the fuck have you been up to? I mean I haven’t heard anything about you, I thought maybe you got pinched or something.”

Steve grinned, “Oh you know a bit of this a bit a that. I’ve been trying to keep a low profile, after what happened to Cicero I wasn’t sure if it was safe or not.” Pete nods in understanding.

Pete turns his gaze from Steve up to the bar, who’s the guy you came in with? You setting something up in Hawaii?”

Steve looks down at the table again to hide his flash of fear, “Nah nothing like that.”

When Steve looks back up Pete is looking at him with eyebrows raised, “You’re not…He’s not…”  Steve lets the grin spread slowly across his face, shrugging. Pete leans back flabbergasted, “Shit man, you got more pussy then any guy in the entire crew.”

Steve continues to smile as he tilts his head back, “usually I don’t partake, but what can I say he’s fit and a fantastic fucking shag.” Pete leans forward with a chuckle as Steve turns around and shouts, “Oy, Danny.”

Danny looks over to where Steve is seated at the booth. He picks up his beer and Steve’s abandoned one and makes his way over. He sets the beers down on the table, but before he can utter a single word Steve pulls him down into the booth next to him with a bruising grip on his bicep, his other hand grabs a handful of Danny’s hair, yanking his head back.  Steve looks into Danny’s eyes as he covers his mouth with his own. Danny can’t stop his first reaction, which is to grab Steve’s shoulder, but he does keep from forcing him back. Danny’s never been kissed like this before, he’d heard tell of people claiming someone with a kiss, but he’d never believed it before now. Steve wastes no time in plunging his tongue deep into Danny’s mouth. 

Steve takes his time dragging his tongue slowly over Danny’s.  Danny’s head is spinning and he doesn’t know if it’s from the lack of air or the intense, thoroughness of the kiss. Steve continues the slow plundering of Danny’s mouth as he moves his tongue over Danny’s hard palette, then back to caressing his tongue, taking deep tastes of Danny. Before Danny can pull himself together enough to respond Steve pulls back with a final lick to Danny’s kiss reddened lips.  Steve releases Danny only to place his arm around his shoulders, pulling him in to his side with an air of propriety.

Danny runs a hand through his hair and licks his lips, pulling himself together to face the man across the table. Danny looks up and immediately hates the smirk on the man’s face as he reaches over to offer Danny a hand shake. Steve picks up his beer and gestures at Pete as Danny reaches up to shake the proffered hand, “Danny this’ an old friend of mine Peter, Pete this is Danny.” 

They shake hands as Pete sizes Danny up, “nice to meet you Danny.”

Danny forces a smile from somewhere, “yea you too.”

Pete turns his attention back to Steve, “so if you’re not working, what brings you to paradise?” 

Steve raises the arm that’s not holding Danny to him, “I’m on Holiday, mate!”

Pete smiles and nods, “yea stupid question, so listen, let’s go celebrate and catch up; I know a great restaurant not far from here.”   

Steve shakes his head and gives a wicked grin, “no thanks, we’re pretty knackered, we’re just going to go back to the hotel for a kip.” At which point he licks a hot, wet stripe from the base of Danny’s neck up to the lobe of his ear, which he sucks on briefly before releasing it.

Pete lets out a puff of laughter and raises his hand in surrender, “okay, okay I get the point, you’ve got plans this evening. How about tomorrow night, I’m throwing a shindig up at this place I got in Diamond Head.”

Steve nods his head and turns to Danny, “I think we could do that.” Danny just nods and sucks down the last swallow of Steve’s beer. Steve lightly shoves Danny until he gets out of the booth.

Pete stands and pulls Steve into a final hug, “it’s good to see you again Marshall. Should I text you the address?”

Steve shakes his head lightly and squeezes Pete’s shoulders, “No need. You know I can always find my way to a do.”

Pete chuckles and turns to Danny, “it was nice meeting you.”

Danny sticks his hands in pockets and nods, “you too.”

Steve turns throwing an arm over Danny’s shoulders again and guides him out of the bar.

\-----------

They step out into the parking lot where the tropical heat immediately sticks to their skin. When they’re a few feet from the Camaro Danny shoves Steve away and rushes over to the car. When he reaches the car he places his hand on the cool metal and attempts to put his thoughts in order. Steve sighs and walks up beside Danny and unlocks the passenger door, “get in Danny.”

That’s the last straw; Danny rounds on Steve ready to let loose a tongue lashing that could peal the paint of the Camaro, but the look on Steve’s face turns the words to ash in his mouth.  Instead when he opens his mouth he simply says with a calm he does not feel, “what’s going on Steve.”  Steve’s response is to simply open the door and calmly stare at the interior of the car. Danny can feel the blood rushing to his face as anger begins to flare hotly up his spine. He says in the same damnably calm voice, “no, not until you tell m-“

Steve cuts off Danny’s words by shoving him towards the open door, crowding him up against the car. He looms over Danny and looks him in the face; jaw clenched tight, “this isn’t the place for this. He might still be watching. Get. In. The. Car. Now.”

Danny searches Steve’s face for something, any sign of his partner and friend, but he only sees familiar features set in an unyielding face. Danny throws his hands up, sits down and swings his legs into the cab. Steve shuts the door without another word and moves to get into the driver’s seat. 

\------------

The silence is thick in the Camaro as Steve races through the darkness. Danny can’t bring himself to look at Steve so he just stares out the window. It doesn’t take him long before he realizes that they’re headed the wrong way to get home. Danny turns to Steve then, “this isn’t the way home.”

Steve continues to look straight ahead, “we’re not going home.”

Danny looks at Steve and puts a warning into his voice, “Steve take me home now.”

Steve turns to Danny now, seeming to realize for the first time that Danny is probably a minute away from blind panic; he lets some of the hardness fall from his face, “I’m sorry Danny, but it’s not safe for ether of us to go home right now. I’m taking us to a hotel.”

Danny sucks in a breath, “Why-”

Steve cuts him off in a stab of impatience, “if Peter finds out that were cops we’re both dead, okay.” Steve turns to Danny with imploring eyes, “Danny I know this is crazy, but I need you to trust me right now. Can you do that, just trust me?”

Danny sighs and rubs his eyes, “Yea I can do that, but I need you to trust me back and tell me what’s going on.”

“I will. I promise. Just wait till we get to the hotel, Okay?”

Danny just nods, but realizing that Steve might not be able to see him, simply says okay.

The remaining ride to the hotel is less tense, but still done in silence.

\------------

Since it’s the off season they are able to get a nice suite. The room is done up very modern with black furniture and a large flat screen hanging on the wall. There’s a couch on the far wall that folds out into a bed perpendicular to a wall of windows looking out towards the ocean.  Danny throws his keys, wallet and badge on the desk and rounds on Steve, “okay we’re here, start talking.”

Steve stares at the wall above Danny’s head saying nothing.  Danny clinches his fists, “Steve!”

Steve jumps at his name being yelled and throws up his hand in defense, “okay! I’m just trying to figure out where to start.”

Danny begins to pace, trying very hard not to yell, “Why don’t you start with who the hell Peter is and then segue into who the fuck Teddy Marshall is.”

“alright, alright, would you just sit down. You’re making me dizzy.”  Danny glares as Steve, but takes a seat across from the bed and waits for Steve to settle and fucking explain.

Steve looks down at the cream carpet under his feet and sighs, “Peter Falcón was a slightly better than average amateur boxer in the late 80’s until he almost beat a guy to death in a match and was kicked out, but he was smart and saw that he had potential as bruiser. Long story short he started working for a South African man named Cicero.”

“Is this where you met him?”

“Yea, this was back in 2001. He was one of Cicero’s lieutenants in charge of dealing with “Russian acquisitions.””

Danny tries to rub the grainy feeling out of his eyes with little success, “so where does Marshall come into this?”

Steve gets pensive again, “Danny what I’m about to tell you is still classified, you can’t-” Danny gives Steve a look that begs him to finish that sentence so Danny can finally punch him. Steve smirks at him, “right, anyway, Theodore Marshall was…is a cover that the NSA guys created so that I could infiltrate Cicero’s organization.”

Danny huffs, “great you’re a spy now, who’s this Cicero character anyway? I’ve never heard of him.”   

Steve frowns, “I’m not a spy…,” he trails off at the look on Danny’s face.  “He was what’s known as a banker. He took money from African warlords, Russian mob, terrorists; you name it and cleaned it.

“So he’s a high profile money launderer.”

Steve shakes his head, “he didn’t just clean dirty money he invested it into the stock market.”

“Who was Theodore Steve?”

Steve gets up and walks over to the windows and pulls the curtains closed, “Theodore Marshall‘s ex-military, dishonorably discharged for disobeying orders. He shot an unarmed civilian, but nothing could be proved. He worked for a few different outfits before he came to Cicero.” Steve looked back over to Danny, “I studied Cicero’s dossier and made myself into the personality type that he would be attracted to.  That mixed in with a couple of specifically engineered events saw me made second in command of his most trusted lieutenant.”

“Peter”

“No, another guy named Arnold, but me and Pete got pretty tight.” Danny watched as Steve made his way back to the bed, “He was in Moscow dealing with a shipment issue when I gave the green light for the Seals to come in and take Cicero and his men into custody.”

“He doesn’t know you were a spy.”

Steve chooses not to comment on the spy part, “No, and no one’s left from then who could have told him.”

Danny runs his hands through his hair and leans back, “explain to me why _I_ can’t go home?”

Steve gives Danny an apologetic look, “I’m sorry Danny, Peter was always sharp, he spotted that we were together at the bar. I couldn’t keep you out of it.”

Danny throws out his hands in confusion, “why couldn’t you just tell him we were business partners?”

Steve looks stricken, “Danny if this is about the kiss-”

“Danny cuts him off, “are you shitting me right now? Forget about the kiss! Answer the question; what the fuck have you gotten me into?”

Steve raises placating hands, “Look, business partners wouldn’t have worked! He would’ve wanted to know all about you and you don’t have a cover ID. When he came up empty he’d put two and two together and we’d be dead.”

“Dead? What for? So we’re cops, why not just run?”

Steve sighs in frustration, “Pete lost a lot of money when Cicero went down. If he found out I was the one who took him down, trust me, he would kill me out of spite and you to cover his tracks.”

Danny stands and sits down next to Steve, “So now he thinks what?”

Steve shrugs, “He thinks you’re for pleasure not business. I doubt he’ll bother to look into you at all and if he does there’s no surprise when he comes up with nothing.”

“Fine. Well, now what? We have a guy with ties to terrorist organizations. Isn’t about time we alerted the FBI or Homeland security?”

“No.”

“No, Why the fuck not!?”

Steve turns and looks at Danny, “he’s planning something in Hawaii Danny.”

Danny frowns, “you’re sure?”

Steve nods, “he didn’t come right out and say it, but yea. If we call the FBI now they’re going to swoop in and whatever he’s doing here is going to get lost. “

“That’s a bad thing why?”

“I know Pete, if he’s willing to talk about it then the operation is almost put together. We can take down his whole operation if we wait.”

Danny stands and rounds on Steve, “just wait a minute, we don’t even know what his operation is, it could be legit.” The look on Steve’s face tells Danny what he thinks about that. “Plus what makes you think we can even get what we need.”

Steve smiles, “because he’s going to offer me a job at the party tomorrow.”

Danny just looks at him like he’s grown a second head, “you know this for sure?”

“I said he liked me.”

Danny just sits back in the chair thrusting his hand out in front of him, “alright, well it’s late I’ll call Chin and Kono in the mor-”

Steve shoots up, “absolutely not, no, we do this just you and me.”

Danny’s floored by this and for a few seconds he doesn’t know what to say, “you…are you serious right now?”  Danny smacks his hands together, “this is _your_ team, you can’t cut them out!”

“Danny-“

“No! don’t Danny me! You don’t just cut Chin and Kono out like that, Okay? We can trust them Steve. _You_ can trust them!”

Steve shoots up, standing toe to toe with Danny; a wild look in his eyes, “I know that Danny, but I am not dragging them into this too, so drop it!”

Danny scrubs at his face. It’s late and he’s exhausted, “okay, but I think they’re bound to notice when we don’t show up to work!”  

Steve shrugs, “we’re not back on the clock ‘till the day after tomorrow.  I’ll worry about it then.”

“You’ll…,” Danny throws up his hands and makes his way over to the bathroom.

“Danny-”

Danny leans his head against the door, “I just need a minute to think,” cutting off whatever McGarrett was going to say.  He pushes the door open and walks in, shutting the door behind him.

He turns the light on making his way over to the sink. He places both hands on the counter and looks at his reflection in the mirror. He has a really bad feeling about this; a numb feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hasn’t felt this way since that bust back in Newark that ended with three dead cops and a 16 year old kid in prison.

Danny turns on the sink and splashes some water on his face to try and clear his raging thoughts. He knows logically that he should tell Steve to go screw himself and call in the calvary, but his gut tells him that if he does that then he would damage his partnership with Steve irreparably.

Danny dries his face and sits down on the toilet putting his head in his hands. He can hear Steve moving around the room.  Danny knows without a doubt that if he walks out and leaves right now Steve will let him go. Just as he knows that if he did that that Steve will still go ahead with the plan alone and end up dead. Danny grinds his teeth together for a second feeling intensely sorry for himself and trying to figure out how his life came to this point.

Danny gets up and makes his way to the door, yanking it open he says in a firm tone, “You’re taking the couch.”  Steve looks at Danny the worry in his eyes vanishing, replaced with a broad grin.

\------------

Danny shoots up in the bed at the loud bang of Steve slamming the fold out back into a couch. He stares bleary eyed around the room for a few seconds before where he is and why crashes into him. Steve is fully dressed and smiling at the way Danny’s hair is sticking up in every direction. “Hey you’re up.”

Danny rubs his eyes and groans, “of course you’re a morning person. What time is it?”

Steve throws the cushions in place, “it’s 10 o’clock. There’s coffee in the pot and I picked up breakfast.”

Danny yawns and gets out of the bed; he’s wearing nothing but boxers. He pulls on his button down from last night but doesn’t bother to button it up. “Did you leave?”

Steve leans on the couch watching Danny with caution, “yea I picked up some stuff since we can’t go home.” There are a number of bags sitting on the table and in the chairs in the corner.

Danny grunts as he pours a cup of coffee and starts looking in the bags with the food, “have you eaten yet?”

Steve walks over and starts pulling things out of the bags, “no, I was waiting for you to wake up.”He takes a container of pancakes, an apple and an orange back to the couch. Danny follows with a second container of pancakes and a few slices of fresh pineapple. “l think maybe we need to go over some things about your cover.”

Danny swallows the pineapple in his mouth, “such as?”

Steve keeps his eyes fixed on his pancakes, “well we should probably get a few details straightened out so our answers match up.”

Danny stares at the top of Steve’s head, “like maybe how Danny…; hey, what’s my last name anyway?”

“Williams is fine. It’s a common enough name and yea, stuff like that.”

“So how does not-detective Danny Williams meet Theodore Marshall the criminal?”

Steve smirks, “I figured I saw you at a club or something and seduced you.”

Danny gives Steve a dirty look, “why do you get to do the seducing, maybe I seduced you.”

Steve stands up with a grin on his face, “I doubt it.”

Danny feels offended, “What you don’t think I can seduce someone?”

Steve walks over to the table and starts looking through the bags, “I didn’t say that. It’s just that Marshalls’ not the type to be seduced.”

Danny takes another bite of his Pancakes, “you mean he has serious control issues like you.”

Steve picks up a couple of bags and drops them next to Danny, “these are your clothes for tonight.”

Danny starts poking through the bags, “you do realize that you’re not helping your case.”

He looks up into Steve’s grinning face.

\-----------  
Danny smoothes his hands down the deep burgundy button-up that Steve put him in. Its short sleeved, and fits like a second skin; the first few buttons are left undone revealing light blonde chest hair. The outfit is completed with a pair of black slacks and flip-flops that Steve insisted he wear. He’s frankly disturbed at how well all his clothes fit and wonders how Steve knows his size; he swears these pants are tailored.   

  



Danny looks over at Steve in his long sleeved, black button-up and jeans and wonders how he can look so stylish in something so casual. He sighs and figures that it helps that everything they’re wearing is designer. Danny doesn’t even want to think how much all this cost. Danny checks to make sure the knife in his belt buckle is secure.  Steve looks over at Danny, “you ready?”

“Not even close, but when has that ever stopped us?”

Steve smiles and pulls onto a dirt road,”never.”

The party is held at an old pineapple plantation. The house wasn’t what Danny was expecting. It was an old mansion that still had all of its original fixtures and looks badly in need of a remodel. The paint is peeling and the tiles are cracked in the entrance way as they walk in. At some point the old place had been wired for electricity so the music is pounding and there are small islands of light with long stretches of darkness in between.  There are silent men standing in corners with familiar bulges under their shirts. Danny suddenly wishes he was armed with more than a knife.  He leans over to Steve, “these’s guys are packing.” Steve only nods.

Danny can tell the exact moment Steve pulls on Marshall. His face loses its internal light leaving behind a cold darkness that makes Danny shiver. Steve’s features even out and he stands up straighter. On a typical day Steve’s full of a passionate intensity that makes him an imposing figure to behold, but now the passion is gone replaced with a hollowness and a possibility of harm that causes the wary to shrink away. Danny decides Steve was right, there is no way Danny would have seduced Theodore Marshall. If he ever met this man it would only ever be with them on opposite sides of a gun.

  



Steve throws an arm around Danny’s shoulders and guides them deeper into the house. It’s not long before they have drinks in their hands and spot Pete surrounded by women. When he see’s Steve and Danny he lights up and pushes the blonde off his lap, standing up to greet them. “Hey Marshall you made it.” He clasps him in a one arm hug and shakes Danny’s hand.   

  



Steve pulls out the sick smile again, “you know I never miss a good party.”

“So what do you think of the place, eh?”

Steve look around him, “it’s a right shithole.”

People in the immediate area all stop and stare at Marshall. Pete  bursts into laughter and claps him on the back, “it is isn’t? I always wanted to get a place like this and fix it up. This is a house warming party.”

Pete gestures to the couch across from where he had been seated and sits. Steve turns and looks at the people already seated there and they quickly vacate the area. Steve sits pulling Danny down beside him.  “I think maybe you should get the water running before moving in.”

Pete smiles at him and turns his attention to Danny, “so what is it that you do Danny?”

Danny takes a swig of his beer, “I’m a sales rep for a hardware company.”

Pete nods, “where did you meet Marshall?”

Steve answers, “we met at a club in Atlantic City.”

Danny smiles at Steve, “He had two women hanging all over him.”

Steve smiles back, “he was standing at the bar looking uncomfortable and out of place, so I decided to shag him in one of the backrooms.”

Pete shakes his head, “you always did have a peculiar way of picking your hook-ups Marshall.” Steve smirks and squeezes Danny’s thigh leaving his hand there. A man walks up and whispers something in Peter’s ear. Peter shakes his head, stands and turns to Steve, “I need to go to a meeting. You wouldn’t mind sitting in would you? Claire here will look after Danny, won’t you Claire?”  The blond In Peter’s lap smiles and sits down on Danny’s other side. 

Steve nods, “sure Pete.”  Steve turns to Danny, grabs the back of his neck and pulls him into a kiss. He slips his tongue past Danny’s lips stroking his tongue slowly. His eyes firmly locked on Claire’s. He releases Danny all at once, “I’ll be back.” He gets up and follows Pete out of the room.

\-----------

Pete and Marshall enter a room that is slightly more finished with a large oak desk and a computer with various papers scattered across its surface. There are five other people waiting when they arrive three men and two women.  Pete walks over to his desk, leans against the front and addresses the room. “I just got word from the Samoans that they’re interested in our proposal, cobble that with the Jamaicans contribution and we’re just about ready to start the final phase, any questions?”  A statuesque brunette in her late 30’s speaks up first, gesturing to where Steve is still standing near the door.  “Who’s he?”

Pete smiles, “this is an old friend of mine Marshall. He’s here at my request.”

A man in black turns to stare at Marshall, “old friend?”  The man frowns, “Since when do we bring strangers into private meetings?”

Pete stands and walks over to Steve drawing him farther into the room with a hand on his shoulder. “Marshalls’ no stranger and we bring in whoever I want, Mickey.”

\-----------

Claire hands Danny a fresh beer and sits down, flicking her hair over her shoulder and crossing her legs so that she’s facing Danny. “That’s quite the man you have there.”

Danny smiles, “yea he can be a little…intense sometimes.”

Claire takes a sip of her martini a haunted look in her eyes, “you mean possessive.”

Danny picks at the label on his bottle, “sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

Claire shrugs and puts down her glass, “just making an observation.” She stands and holds out a hand for Danny to take, “do you think he’ll mind if you dance with me?”

Danny stands and takes her hand, “it’ll be our little secret.”

Claire laughs lightly as she leads Danny out onto the dance floor.

\------------

The meeting continues with an undercurrent of tension with everyone reluctant to talk business in front of Marshall. Peter steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it and goes on business as usual. He ushers the last of his people out the door and turns to where Marshall is seated off to the left of Pete’s desk. “Well what do you think?”

Steve leans forward, placing his arms on his thighs, “they seem fit to piss themselves.”

Pete sighs and sits down next to Steve, “yea, they are cautious, but they have every right to be, there’s a new law enforcement element that’s making it more difficult to do business in Hawaii.”

Steve scoffs, “that never used to stop us.”

Peter looks over at Marshall and smiles, “well we were professionals, Teddy, we knew how to handle things; what our strengths were. My crew is good, but they don’t yet understand the scope and scale of what we’re doing.” Pete turns so he’s looking Marshall in the eyes, “That’s why I wanted you to come tonight. I want you to be my second in command.”

Steve leans back, looking away; “I don’t know, Pete, I’m just here on holiday.”

Pete shifts drawing Steve’s eyes back to him, “oh come on Marshall, you’ve got nothing on right now, I checked. This is going to be a big payday and we will finally get to run things the way we want to, like we used to talk about.”

Steve gives Pete a considering look, “I’ll think about it Pete, but I’m not making any promises.”

Pete raises his hand in supplication, “that’s all I ask.”

Steve gets up and heads for the door he stops and decides to make a gamble, “The git in the black, Mickey, you should check him out what he said about the Haitians doesn’t sound right.” Steve opens the door and heads down the stairs not waiting for Pete’s response.

\-----------

Claire has her arms looped loosely around Danny’s neck as they sway to the music. “You seem like a nice guy Danny.”

Danny looks down at Claire, “Thanks.”

Claire smiles at Danny, “you were right earlier, when you said it sounded like I spoke from experience. I do.”

“Oh?”

Claire leans back a little, “I’ve met men like your Marshall before, there’s something about them, something dark and dangerous that draws you in.  Suddenly you find yourself in places like this surrounded by beautiful, empty vessels.” She sighs and drops her head on his shoulder, “don’t let him take you over, he’ll try you know, but you mustn’t let him.”

Danny doesn’t know what to say to that. So he says nothing and continues to sway.

“I do hope I’m not interrupting.” Claire immediately lets go.  She smiles at Danny and melts back into the darkness.

Danny doesn’t watch her go instead he turns around to regard Steve. Before Danny can open his mouth Steve drags him off the dance floor. He leads him down a dark corridor only stopping to pick up a bottle of champagne.

 They come to an open room with soft light shining from a lamp in a corner. The only thing in the room is a large dining table that looks original to the house.  Steve shove’s the door closed behind them. Steve spins Danny around and begins walking them back towards the table.  

Danny feels his ass hit the table as Steve’s hands find their way under his shirt. Danny hisses quietly at the contact, “what-”

Steve grabs the back of Danny’s head pulling them together so that their lips were just touching. “shhh, not here, their probably watching.” Steve completes the kiss pushing Danny back with the force of it. Danny grabs on to Steve’s back trying to hold himself up.

 Steve releases Danny’s lips only to attack is neck with lips and tongue. Danny groans and holds on tighter. Panting out, “why don’t we just leave?”

Steve bites down on the juncture between shoulder and neck. Danny draws his legs up, resting then on Steve’s hips. Steve’s voice has gone gravely, “my cover, if we leave now it’ll look suspicious.” Steve grabs Danny’s lower back, bringing their hips into contact; both men groan as their cloth covered erections connect. Steve tears his mouth away from Danny’s neck and begins unbuttoning his shirt. He gets distracted, however, by the skin that’s being slowly revealed and begins to lick long lines up Danny’s chest. Danny moans and drags Steve back up to his lips.

 He grabs two handfuls of Steve’s shirt and rips it open, buttons softly clattering around them. Danny runs his hands down Steve’s chest. His blunt nails raking across Steve’s nipples cause him to groan deep in his throat.

Steve pushes Danny’s shirt off his shoulders, pushing Danny flat on the table. Steve pauses and looks into Danny’s eyes blown wide with lust.  Steve dips down sucking Danny’s left nipple into his mouth. Danny groans loudly and arches into Steve’s mouth. Steve swirls his tongue around the nub and lightly bites down causing Danny to shutter.   

Steve leaves sucking kiss all the way down Danny’s chest; dipping his tongue into his bellybutton.  Danny runs a hand through Steve’s hair causing him to look up at Danny.  His eyes locked on Danny’s, Steve reaches down and begins unbuckling his belt. Danny reaches down and pulls Steve back up to his mouth quickly licking his way into Steve’s mouth.

Danny slides his hand down Steve’s chest and unbuttons his pants and reaches inside.  Steve lets out a gasp as Danny wraps his hand around Steve’s erection.  He quickly gets Danny’s pants undone and moans again when he realizes that Danny’s not wearing any underwear. Steve grabs onto Danny’s pants, lifts his hips and pulls them off. Danny stares dazedly at Steve as if he can’t believe that he’s lying naked on a table.

 Steve takes in the view before him; miles of soft, flushed skin over compact muscle. He picks up the forgotten bottle of champagne on the table he leans over and carefully pours a stream of amber liquid into Danny’s open mouth. Danny is surprised, but manages to swallow most of it. Danny gasps as Steve pours more of it onto Danny stomach. Danny gasps as the cold champagne makes contact with his skin. This is immediately followed by a moan as Steve’s hot tongue chases the champagne across his skin.

Steve leans up and pours some of the champagne into his own mouth. He looks back down at Danny, grabs his hips and drags him back to the edge of the table. Steve steps in between Danny’s parted thighs. He brings Danny’s legs up to rap around his waist. He leans over, covering Danny with his body. Steve caresses Danny’s face tilting his head back pouring the now warm champagne from his mouth into Danny’s. Danny accepts the champagne and the kiss that follows, feeling light headed as the champagne goes straight to his head.

Danny reaches down slipping his hands into Steve’s pants, squeezing his ass and brings their hips into greater contact. Steve growls as his pants slide down his hips and their erections meet. Steve grabs Danny’s thighs and thrusts down in a slow drag. Danny moans and wraps his arms around Steve’s back, trapping their dicks between them.

Steve bits down on Danny’s neck as his hips speed up. Danny groans and starts to thrust back.  Steve pulls back staring into Danny’s eyes as he thrusts down against Danny’s stomach. Danny can’t tear his eyes away from Steve’s even as the pleasure threatens to overwhelm him.  

Steve begins to lose his rhythm as climax approaches. He can’t look Danny in the eye anymore so he kisses him instead. Danny begins clawing at Steve’s back and tenses. His orgasm hits him like a punch to the gut, causing him to lose his breath.  Steve groans as he feels Danny’s climax and joins him. They lay like that for a moment to catch their breath.

Steve’s back begins to twinge from the awkward angle so he starts to disentangle himself from Danny. He looks down at Danny sweaty and quivering; his hair everywhere, covered in their come and has to close his eyes. He turns away and works on pulling himself back together.

Danny eventually gets up and starts looking for his clothes. He looks down at the mess on his stomach and looks at the champagne. He shrugs and grabs the bottle using the remainder of the no doubt expensive champagne to rinse the come off his stomach.  He looks up, catches Steve staring at him, but doesn’t say anything.

They finish Dressing and exit the room. When they get back to the party Steve draws Danny to his side with an arm around his shoulders. His shirt is wide open and his walk is loose limbed looking every inch like a man who had just gotten laid. Danny just looks down at the ground letting himself be guided through the house towards the door and escape.

\---------

As soon as they hit the room Danny makes a beeline for the bathroom, “I need a shower.” Steve watches the tense line of Danny’s back as it disappears into the bathroom, “Danny-” His words are cut off by the bathroom door slamming shut. Steve runs his hands through his hair and sits down heavily on the bed. The ride back to the hotel had been deafening with its silence; the air thick with words they couldn’t say. Steve looks at the bathroom door and thinks about kicking it down.  Instead he walks over to the mini-bar, pulls out a whisky and waits. 

Danny wastes no time in pulling off his clothes trying not to think about the mixture of champagne and come still clinging to his skin. He starts the shower and puts it on as hot as he can stand it. Danny steps under the spray and allows the water to wash Steve’s scent off his skin.  He closes his eyes and rests his forehead against the cool tile. He still believes he was right before; if he had walked out yesterday he would have destroyed their friendship, maybe their partnership. Only now he’s afraid that they’ve gone and done it anyway.  For one insane moment it’s all Danny can do to not jump out of the shower throw his clothes on and run out the door, keep running until he hits Jersey. He’s so far out of his depth he can’t see the light. He longs for the days when the ground was solid beneath his feet, concrete, where he knew who he was and understood what he did.  Now he stands on pillars of sand, constantly shifting, threatening to drown him. Danny begins to frantically scrub his skin and gets out of the shower. Wrapping a towel around his hips he belatedly realizes he has no clothes to change into. He walks to the closed door and takes a deep breath, opens the door and steps out.

\-----------

Steve looks up when he hears the door open and Danny walks out still damp from his shower in nothing but a towel. Steve swallows and looks down. Danny walks over to the set of drawers near the closet and starts pulling out clothes. Steve hears the towel hit the floor and is startled when Danny starts to speak, “well?”

Steve looks up and immediately regrets it; Danny is standing naked pulling on a pair of shorts. Steve moves his eyes up to look at Danny’s ear, “well what?”

Danny sighs and looks heavenward as if begging God to save him from Steve’s stupidity. It’s such a typical look on Danny that it causes something in Steve to loosen. “The meeting, Steven; what happened?” Danny pulls a black wife-beater on and decides to call himself dressed. He sits down in front of Steve and waits.

 Steve still can’t meet Danny’s eyes so he speaks to Danny’s chin, “He offered me a job as his second in command.”

Danny leans forward in an attempt to catch Steve’s eye and fails, “that’s great, second in command of what?”

Steve runs his hands through his hair, “that part’s still a little vague, but from what I’ve gathered from the meeting is that Pete is going to try to control the dirty money coming into the islands so that they have no choice but to deal with Pete. He’s trying a form of financial vertical integration, controlling the money from top to bottom.”

Danny whistles, “very ballsy.”

“Or very stupid, if any of the cartels that he’s dealing with find’s this out their going to rip him apart.”

Danny grunts in agreement. He looks at the clock and is shocked at how late it’s gotten. He yawns; starting to feel the night’s events. Steve notices this and smiles, “I’m going to grab a shower. You should get some sleep.”

Danny nods and decides that there’s nothing that can’t wait till the morning anyway.

\------------

Steve is awakened by the shrill ring of a phone. He groans and rolls over grabbing blindly for it. He hears an answering groan from the bed as the ringing wakes Danny up. He finally gets his hands on the cell and realizes that it’s the burn phone he bought for Marshall. He takes a breath to pull himself together then answers, “this better be fucking important, mate, you just ruined a good kip.”

Pete’s voice on the other end was tense, “Get your ass down to the warehouse district near the docks, now. I need your help.”

Steve shoots up in the couch bed, “what’s wrong Pete?”

“I don’t want to discuss this over the phone; just get here as soon as you can. I’ll text you the warehouse number.” The phone vibrates indicating a text has just been received.

 “What is it?” Danny’s voice sounds braced for the answer.

“Something’s happened; Pete wants me to meet him at warehouse 57 on the docks.”

Danny throws the covers off and moves over to his cell, “I’m calling Chin.”

Steve shakes hi s head as he stands up, “no, I told you I don’t want them involved in this!”

Danny closes his eyes and silently counts to ten in an attempt to not lose his temper. He says as calmly as he can, “Steve I let it go before because I was trusting you and there was a chance nothing would come of this, but now we have something and we need to call in the other half of _our_ team!”  

Steve says in an equally calm tone, I said no Danny, that’s final.”

Danny walks over to Steve, disbelief etched in his face, “are you…listen to me if this thing kicks off, which it sounds like it’s about to, we’re going to need their help!”

Steve doesn’t meet Danny’s eyes, his tone dangerous, “I’m done talking about this.”

Danny stares a moment taken aback by a tone that was dangerously close to Marshall’s, “we’re supposed to be in the office in an hour. What am I supposed to say to Chin when neither of us shows up?”

Steve grins and slaps Danny on the shoulder as he makes his way to the bathroom, “You’ll think of something.”

Danny rolls his eyes and moves off to get dressed speaking to himself, ‘great…just great, I’m going to get fired before I get shot.”

\---------

Danny had left a text with Chin saying that he and Steve would be in late and to hold down the fort. It would at least buy them some time.

 Steve let the car roll to a stop as the warehouse came into view in the distance, “I want you to stay in the car.”

Danny chose to not even dignify that remark with speech; he simply stares at Steve like he just made a particularly off colored joke.

Steve stared right back, “I can’t bring you in there.”

Danny unbuckles his seatbelt, “If you’re going in there then so am I.” He opens the door and gets out of the car. Steve tries to stop him with a hand on his arm, but Danny just shrugs it off.  Steve follows him out of the car, turning to face him over the roof. The look on Danny’s face can only be described as murderous. “There is no way I am going to let you go in there alone, so you come up with a way to get us both in or I’m calling Chin and telling him to bring the surveillance van!”

Steve looks into Danny’s eyes, sees the fear quickly turning into terror and decides to relent, “fine I’ll think of something.”

Danny just nods and follows Steve over to the warehouse.

\----------

Peter is waiting for them as they are escorted into the warehouse by a large man with a semi-automatic hidden under his garish Hawaiian shirt. Peter walks toward Marshall but stops when he sees Danny enter in behind him. “What’s your boy toy doing here?”

Steve walks up to Pete with a look of impatience, “you told me it was important so I came right over.  What’s the problem?”

Peter gestures at Danny, “This is probably something you don’t want him seeing.”

“Pete what the bloody _hell_ is going on?”

 Peter takes Marshall by the shoulder and leads him to where Mickey is tied to a chair. “I looked into what you said and sure enough I found a few idiosyncrasies. When I asked Mick about it he denied it. I thought maybe you could have one of your patented ‘chats’ with him and get him to talk.”

Steve walks over to Mickey and kneels down to look him in the face, “Mickey, can you hear me mate?”

Mickey lifts his chin off his chest. He has a large bruise covering the left side of his jaw and several small cut on his face. “I can hear you. I ain’t talking to no faggot.”  

Steve looks away for a moment, “poof or not you’re still going to talk.” Steve grabs Mickey’s jaw and brings it up so he can look Mickey in the eye. “The information you gave Pete is false. So the question becomes why are you feeding him false intel?”

Mickey pulls his face out of Steve’s grip, “I told you I ain’t talkin’ to you!”

Steve stands up looking down at Mickey, “I don’t think you realize the situation you’re in.” Steve looks down at Mickey, “If you tell me what I want to know I might be able to convince Pete to spare your life.”   

Mickey turns to Peter,” who the hell is this guy, huh! He just comes outta nowhere and starts poisoning you against me! Man Pete, we been working together for 3 years!”

Pete looks at Mickey shaking his head, “not out of nowhere. I trust him far more then I trust you.” Peter turns to Marshall, “do what you gotta do” and walks away.”

Mickey tries calling out to Peter, but Marshall grabs his throat cutting of his words. “Now you _will_ answer all my questions, but whether or not you’re alive at the end will be entirely up to you mate.” Steve releases his hold and waits for Mickey to get his breath back.

“Fuck you, you fucking faggot.”

Marshall leans down taking hold of Mickey’s pinky finger, “wrong answer. “There’s a loud snap followed by a shrill scream. Steve waits for the screams to die down, “how about now? Do you feel like talking to me now?” when he receives no reply he breaks his ring finger.

Danny’s heart is beating a mile a minute and he can feel the bile rising up his throat.  Danny knew in the abstract what kind of training Steve had, the things that he may have done “in service to his country”, but he had never really thought of _Steve_ doing those things. Danny wasn’t naïve; Steve is a bully, had seen him intimidate and threaten suspects. He _hung_ a guy off a roof for fuck sakes, but this was different. This was torture.

 Marshall grabs a handful of Mickey’s hair forcing his head back, “why did you lie to Pete?”

Mickey looks at Marshall through pain glazed eyes, “Please…”

Marshall pulls a knife out of his pocket, “I see, you need more convincing.” Marshall takes the knife and slowly drags it down Mickey’s shirt, slicing off buttons so that the shirt falls open. “Have you ever been stabbed before? I have mate and let me tell you it was not pleasant.” Marshall gently presses the blade, without breaking the skin, into Mickey’s stomach right above his bellybutton. “A friend of mine was stabbed in the gut once; it took him a week to die. He would scream and scream once the morphine wore off and the smell, God, it was horrible.” Marshall pulled the blade away from Mickey’s stomach, “tell me why you lied to Pete or I stab you.”

Mickey looks at the blade in Marshall’s hand, “Okay…just don’t…there’re people, people who’re worried about Pete’s operations. They came to _me_ , offered me 100,000 dollars to feed Pete some bogus info. That’s all I swear.” Mick looks over at Pete, “I never told them nothing about the operation, I swear.”

Peter looks away and gestures for Marshall to continue. Marshall grabs Mickey’s head once again, “who paid you?”

“I don’t know.”

Marshall grins at Mickey, “you’re lying” and stabs him in the side. Mickey screams and begins to sob.

Danny has to look away as Steve pulls out the blade, swiftly followed by a gush of blood. His hands shake as he tries to keep from vomiting. It wasn’t the gore that was getting to him, it was Steve. Danny didn’t want to believe it at first, but he can’t ignore it any longer.

 Steve’s pupils have blown so wide that he can barely see the hazel of his irises. There is a light shining from the depths of all that blackness. Steve was actually enjoying this. Then it hit Danny; maybe it wasn’t Steve he was seeing here, but Marshall in all his horrifying glory. For just an instant it was only fear of what would happen that kept Danny from running from that warehouse and not looking back.

Marshall clutches Mickey’s shoulder with a death grip, “Mickey…Mickey relax I know it hurts, but it’s just a flesh wound; you’ll be fine if you get to a hospital. I’ll see that you do if you tell me who hired you.”

Mickey is losing it now, he’s slobbering all over the place and he’s pissed himself, “I can’t…I can’t…if I tell you they’ll kill me.”

Marshall bends down and catches Mickey’s eye, “Mickey if you don’t tell me right now I’m going to stab you in the stomach and you will die very, very slowly. Do you believe me?” Mickey nods. “Alright then, tell me or I’m going to kill you.”

Mickey can barely speak through his sobs, “I only talked to one guy named Stoker. He said he represented a ‘group of concerned persons’ I think maybe he was a lawyer. That’s all I know I swear…I swear.”

Marshall stands and walks over to Pete, “he’s telling the truth.”

Pete nods his head and turns to Mickey, “what should I do with him?”

Marshall shrugs, “do what you want with him. Might be good to keep the tosser alive for the time being; you might need him later.”

Peter motions for one of his men to take him, “take him to doc Avery. I want him alive for right now.” Peter turns to Steve, “I need to find this Stoker and whoever he represents.” He lightly taps him on the shoulder, “so how about it, are you going to work with me or not? Lord knows I could use someone I trust.”

Steve gives Peter a look of consideration, “I’d like a closer look at your operation, but tentatively I’ll say… it sounds like fun.”

Pete grins and claps him on his back as he leads him towards the exit and Danny. “How bout we have a long talk tomorrow? I’m going to be busy for the rest of the day overseeing a few things.”

Danny is numb, has no idea what expression is on his face. As they draw closer to him his mind goes blank.  Whatever was on his face must have been alright, because Peter never gave him a second glance. It could have been he only had eyes for Marshall.

Steve throws his arm around Danny and guides him out of the warehouse. Danny’s skin is crawling everywhere that Steve is touching him.

Danny is grateful when they get to the car and Steve lets go. He goes to reach for his phone and he realizes his hands are shaking badly.  He holds his breath at the sound of Steve’s voice. “Who’re you calling?”

“No one, I’m just checking messages.” Two of them were from Chin asking where the hell they were and if they planned on coming in today at all.

“Tell him I’m sick and you’re looking after me. You’re not sure when or if we’ll be in today.”

Danny climbs into the passenger seat, “you think he’s going to buy that?”

 Steve shakes his head, “I think they already suspect, but I don’t think they’ll do anything about it for another eight to twelve hours.”

Danny doesn’t know what to say to that so he says nothing.

\---------

The door is barely closed before Steve grabs Danny, turning him so that he’s facing Steve.  Danny struggles for a second before he looks up into Steve’s eyes. There is vulnerability there, like maybe Steve’s a little bit broken and now he needs Danny to put him back together.  Steve continues to stare into Danny’s eyes as he cradles Danny’s face in his hands.  Waiting for Danny to let him have what he needs.

Danny’s doesn’t know what Steve needs to be okay, but he knows that he will do what it takes. Danny reaches up and places his hand on Steve’s neck. That was all that Steve needed for him to lean down and take Danny’s lips in a kiss.

This kiss is different than any other they have shared. Steve is no longer staking claim, but entreating entrance, which Danny grants with a sigh. Steve strokes Danny’s tongue drawing it into his mouth.

Danny moans as he dips his tongue into Steve’s lush, hot mouth.  He grabs the back of Steve’s head so that he can take his time. 

Steve has other plans, however, and pushes Danny down onto the bed, reaching down he takes off Danny’s shoes, slipping off his own.  Steve slowly begins to undress, revealing long, lean muscles pulled tight under smooth skin and light smatterings of hair. Danny can’t look away, can hardly believe that the beauty before him conceals such darkness.

Steve moves over to the bed and straddles Danny’s hips. He leans over Danny’s body unbuttoning his shirt. He runs his hands gently down Danny’s chest as if he can’t believe that it’s real. Danny reaches up and places a hand on Steve’s chest over his heart. Steve clutches the hand as if he intends to hold it there, but instead he removes it and presses it into the sheets and says in a horse voice, “don’t move.”   

Steve swiftly removes all of Danny’s cloths. Again he took a moment to gaze upon Danny’s body, running a hand from Danny’s face down his neck over his chest to his belly. He stops briefly with a hand on Danny’s hip; he’s half hard already, dick springing from a nest of blonde curls. Steve’s hand continues the journey over Danny’s thigh all the way to the souls of his feet. Unconsciously mimicking Danny’s earlier thought; Steve breaths out a quiet, “You’re so beautiful.”

Steve shifts so that he’s kneeling between Danny’s slightly parted thighs. He lays down so that they’re skin to skin, no space between them.  Danny gasps at the contact, shifting his hips up; leaving Steve with no choice, but to thrust back.  Steve runs his hands down Danny’s sides taking his hips in a bruising grip. Danny groans at the loss of friction. Steve settles more of his weight on Danny’s hips, pinning him to the bed.

 Steve takes a hold of Danny’s hair, pulling his head back and licks a slow, hot line up Danny’s throat, up over his chin, then into his mouth.  Steve slides his arms under Danny’s back, pulling them into greater contact.  Steve groans in the back of his throat as he drags a hand down Danny’s back to grab at his ass, thrusting into the cradle of Danny’s hips.

Danny is panting into Steve’s mouth, unable to catch his breath.  His hands are twisted in the sheets in an effort to not touch.  His heart is beating a mile a minute and he’s starting to sweat.   Danny’s never felt anything like this. This mix of hot pleasure and sharp stabs of fear as Steve pulls one of his thighs over his hip, slipping a hand behind his balls and begins to stroke his hole.

Steve moves from where he had been sucking on Danny’s shoulder, blood pooling under the skin leaving a lived red mark on creamy skin. He looks into Danny’s eyes, voice full of gravel, “Let me…” He pushes more firmly against Danny’s hole causing him to shutter.  Danny’s throat closes at the thought of what Steve wants, so he hitches his leg higher on Steve’s hip and nods.   Steve whimpers in the back of his throat giving Danny a sloppy open mouthed kiss as he reaches over to the night stand where the hotel’s complimentary lotion sits.  

He squeezes half the small bottle onto Danny’s stomach. Danny hisses as the cold lotion lands on his sex warmed skin.  Steve smiles against Danny’s lips as he rubs a finger through the lotion.  Steve trails the finger down between Danny’s legs and pushes inside.

Danny arches up as the finger breaches the first ring of muscle. Danny lets out a strangled moan as Steve uses the finger to work the lotion into him.

Steve can’t take his eyes of Danny as he fucks him with his finger. Danny’s head is thrown back baring his neck, chest heaving.  The muscles in Danny’s stomach jumping under his skin are mesmerizing and Steve just has to lean down and lick them.  Steve withdraws the finger from Danny to add more lotion; adding a second finger to the first.

The burn from the second finger causes Danny to bite at his lips, he feels stuffed full.  Steve can tell he’s in some discomfort, “relax.” Danny takes a deep breath and relaxes his muscles. Steve’s fingers slide farther in.  He curls his fingers, lightly brushing against his prostate.

Arching his back Danny let out a high pitched moan, spreading his legs wider to give Steve better access.  Steve licks his lips and begins rubbing the spot just to watch Danny lose it.

Danny claws at the bed thrusting himself onto Steve’s fingers. Danny whimpers when Steve takes his fingers away, but shouts when Steve comes back with three. Steve continues to fuck Danny with his fingers as he leans over to swallow his moans.   

 Steve is shaking with the force of his arousal, unable to stand another minute without being inside Danny. He pulls out and begins coating his straining erection with the remainder of the lotion. Danny can only watch, breathless as Steve presses into him, dick slowly sinking into his body.  Steve is groaning as he tries not to thrust before Danny’s ready. He’s griping Danny’s hips so hard he knows that there will be bruises, but he can’t seem to let go. “God…you’re so tight...”  Steve is pressed firmly against Danny’s hips waiting for Danny to adjust to being filled.

Danny’s eyes are glazed and unfocused as he shifts his hips and squeezes Steve where he is deep inside. Steve groans and gives an involuntary snap of his hips, making Danny cry out.  Steve shushes him with a hand gently pressed to his neck and begins to barely move his hips as he shallowly thrusts into Danny’s clinching heat.

Danny reaches up placing his hands on Steve’s shoulders, feeling the muscles shift as Steve moves in him only to have Steve grab his biceps in a punishing grip. Steve has to lean down farther to keep Danny pinned. The change in angle brings Steve’s member in contact with Danny’s prostate.

Danny is moaning constantly now, arching up into Steve’s ever quickening thrusts. Steve is quickly losing control. Placing more weight on his arms, he begins pounding into Danny. Steve drops his head between his shoulders moaning with each thrust into Danny’s body.

Danny’s erection is leaking on his stomach steadily and the brief brushes of Steve’s abs against the head are driving him crazy. “Steve…Please.”

Steve looks down at Danny shaking his head, “no…like this…come like this.” Steve releases one of Danny’s arms grabbing an ass cheek forcing Danny to shove down harder on Steve’s upstrokes.

Danny clinches down on Steve’s erection. Steve loses all rhythm slamming into Danny’s spasmming body. Steve groans low in his chest as his orgasm hit’s him white hot and he’s shooting deep inside Danny.

Steve only barely manages to hold himself up on shaking arms as he carefully slides out of Danny with a hiss and collapses face down next to him panting for breath.

 Danny turns onto his side so that he is facing Steve, his breathing has evened and he’s finally coming down from the high of his orgasm. Danny doesn’t know what to think, for once his mind is a complete blank on what to say or do. Steve, however, takes the choice out of Danny’s hands. He throws an arm over Danny’s chest pulling him close to his body. Steve tucks his chin in Danny’s neck and closes his eyes, “sleep…you can freak out when you wake up.” Danny hadn’t even realized how tense he was until he began to consciously relax against Steve.  Danny closes his eyes.

\-----------

Steve waits for Danny’s breathing to even out before he carefully makes his way out of the bed. He puts all his SEAL stealth to good use and silently gets dressed; he takes one last look at Danny before he quietly closes the door.

Steve pauses with his hand on the door and takes a deep breath. He knows that the last few days have been rough on Danny, been rough on them both. He sees it in the way Danny can’t quite meet his eyes anymore.

Steve stands and makes his way to the Camaro; he has to finish this now before any more damage can be done to Danny and his relationship. He’s not even sure it will survive now.

Steve makes only one stop before he heads over to Pete’s house.

\-----------

Steve hides in the shadows watching for the shift change in the men guarding the house. When he sees the gap he’s looking for he crouches low and moves carefully but quickly over to the house. He has three minutes.  He reaches a crumbling window; by sticking his hand in the eroded mortar holding the frame he is able to pop the window and gently slide it open. 

Steve peers in the window gun first. There is a camera in the far corner, but it focuses on the doorway and not the window.   Steve hops through the window closing it behind him. He slowly enters  into one of the hallways along the back of the house. He pauses for another moment to make sure no alarm has gone up; he hears nothing and continues deeper into the house.  Steve makes his way up a set of stairs to Pete’s office.     

The office is as Steve remembers if only more lived in. There’s an empty coffee mug sitting next to a half eaten bagel.  Steve moves around the desk over to the computer. He boots it up; a dialoged box pops up asking for an encrypted passkey. Steve smiles, encrypted is good, encrypted means that whatever is on this machine is important enough to protect with encryption.  Steve pulls out a notebook and hooks it up to the machine.  As soon as he hooks it in a bunch of numbers go scrolling across the screen at a rapid pace. After several minutes the scrolling ceases and a command prompt pops up blinking lazily; Steve types in copy. A progress bar pops up showing how long before all the data is compressed and downloaded onto the notebook.

Steve’s head shoots up in alarm as he hears voices outside. He quickly yanks the USB cable out of the computer and shoves the notebook into his backpack. He looks around. There is an old built in bookshelf near the back of the room. The top of it is much taller than a person, but doesn’t quite reach the ceiling. Steve hastily tosses his bag up onto the bookshelf. He turns around just as the door bursts open.

\-----------

Danny slowly wakes; he yawns, stretches and opens his eyes. Realizing where he is triggers memoires of what he has done; what Steve and he have done. This makes the shock greater when he realizes he’s in bed alone. He sits up placing his hand on the spot where Steve had lain.  The sheets are cold. He rapidly climbs out of bed and looks in the bathroom; it’s empty. Danny places his hands on his head and spins around for a second mind boggled, unsure of what to do.  The numb feeling comes over him again and he knows that Steve has gone and done something stupid.

Danny goes into motion all at once. He quickly starts getting dressed as he grabs his phone. He’s had enough of doing things Steve’s way. He takes a deep breath as the phone is answered on the second ring. “Chin, we have a problem; I’m coming in.”

\----------

One of Peter’s henchmen lands a punch to Steve’s midsection. Peter stops his pacing in front of Steve, “what are you doing here Marshall.”

Steve pants, catching his breath, “I told you… I wanted to talk business.”

Pete’s red face belies his calm tone, “you’re lying. I know you accessed my computer; when you pinged the server you set off an alarm.”

Steve looks at Peter, face devoid of any emotion and says nothing. Pete gently grabs Steve’s face. “Why are you here Marshall, just tell me the truth.  Are you working for this Stoker character?”

Steve makes his eyes wide and puts as much earnestness into his voice as he can, “come on, mate, it’s me.  Do you honestly think I would take up with a solicitor? I hate the blighters.”

Peter smiles at Mitchell, “Yea I know you do, but I also know that you’re up to something. Tell me what it is or I got no choice but to kill you man.”

\----------

Danny bursts into five-o headquarters shouting for Chin and Kono.  They sprint into the main room with identical expressions of worry.  Danny rushes over to the computer bank in the center of the room. “Chin I need you to turn the GPS on in my car and get the location.”

Chin looks at Danny in confusion, “Danny what’s going on; where’s Steve?”

Danny gestures at the table, “that’s what I need you to tell me.”

Chin raises his hands, “woah, woah, woah, what the hell is going on Danny?”

Danny run’s his hands through his hair impatiently, “look I don’t have time to explain, but I know Steve has gone off and done something stupid.”

“According to the GPS in the Camaro your car is in Diamond Head.” Kono looks at Danny with a question in her eyes.

Danny curses, “okay, Chin, Kono I need you to get everything together for a raid on a mansion. It will have surveillance and at least six hostels armed with automatic and semi-automatic weapons.”

Chin looks at Danny as if he’s finally gone mad, but moves off to comply, “I’ll call SWAT, tell them to meet-”

Danny shakes his head cutting Chin off, “no, we’re not getting HPD involved with this one. We’re just going to have to make do with the three of us.”

Kono and Chin stop what they’re doing and look at each other. Chin steps forward and speaks cautiously, “you want us to raid a house with an unknown number of hostels with just the three of us?”

 Danny shakes his head, “no…yes…I don’t know! Look I don’t know what’s waiting for us in Diamond Head, but my gut tells me it’s trouble. “Danny looks at them both with eyes begging them to believe him.

Kono  looks at Chin, something silent passes between them. Kono turns back to Danny, “I’ll grab the infrared equipment.”

Not realizing that he had stopped Danny breathes again.  Chin grabs Danny’s arm, “when this is over you and Steve have some serious explaining to do.” Danny simply nods. There was much to be said all around.

\--------

Steve hangs his head; it was a mistake to come here alone, but he knew what Danny would’ve said if he would have told him this plan. _‘You’re a moron.’_

Peter gently cups Steve’s face, “who are you working for Marshall?” Steve tears his face away from Pete’s hands. He knows that it’s only a matter of time before Danny realizes what he’s done and comes after him. He needs to buy some time.

Steve smiles up at Peter and starts laughing, dropping his accent, “I’m a cop!”

Peter grabs Steve’s chin in a punishing grip eye’s wide and staring, “you’re lying!”

 Steve nods his head as best as he can with his chin immobilized, “Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett”

\---------

Danny, Chin and Kono climb out of the Traverse and walk up to the Camaro; all three unsurprised to find it empty.

Danny sighs and gestures off to the north, “Falcon’s house is about 100 yards that way.” Kono and Chin grab the surveillance equipment and follow Danny’s lead.            
 Danny peers at the house through a pair of binoculars. There appears to be only one guard patrolling the outside of the house.   Danny frowns; there should be at least three guards outside.  He turns and gestures to Chin, “set up the infrared.”

Kono and Chin make quick work on setting it up and all three of them stared at the screen.  There where various heat signatures throughout the house, but the majority of them were in a room on the second floor.  There were three other heat signatures standing at various points on the first floor.  Danny looks back at the house recalling the layout and posits where each man is standing.  There is one standing guard out front, one patrolling the interior at the back of the house and one standing, if he remembers correctly, at the base of the main staircase. 

Chin walks over to Danny coming to a stop next to him,” so what’s the plan?”

Danny looks down at the ground unable to meet Chin’s gaze. He has done a lot of things in the last couple of days, hell the last six _months_ , that he thought he would never do, but it had been McGarrett pushing him down those paths. Danny finds himself at an impasse.  There’s a plan forming in his mind unlike anything he had ever thought of attempting before; something so far from the man that he is and has always prided himself on being. There is no McGarrett here to blame, no one to berate. It would be his decision, his choice.  

Danny turns to Chin and grins, blue eyes sparkling in the sun.

\-------------

Pete tangles his fingers in what’s left of his hair and steps back from Steve with disbelief written all over his face, “Cicero, that was you?”

Steve sighs and nods; “Think about it Pete, wasn’t it a bit convenient that I just happened along just when you needed an expert killer?”

Peter shakes his head, “You can’t be a cop, all the things you did, cops don’t do that.”

Steve looks down at his lap, “I did what I had to do.”

\-------------

Danny crouches down pushing his back into the wall behind him to make himself as small as possible. He peaks around the corner at the first guard standing in front of the door.  

“Are you in position,” Chin’s voice thin in his ear.

“Roger, on three;” Danny gripped the stun gun in his hand tighter.  “One. Two. Three!”  A loud nock occurs just as Danny sprinted from around the corner, distracting the guard just long enough for Danny to cover the man’s mouth and jab the stun gun into his neck. The man seizes in his arms quickly going limp as Danny lowers him silently to the ground.  Chin comes out of his position on the other side of the house. He kneels and helps Danny tie up the guard.

After they drag the unconscious guard off to the side they pull out their guns and get in position on either side of the door. Kono comes across their earwigs, “you’re good to go, the others are still in position.” Kono is perched on top of the Traverse peering through the scope of a sniper rifle.

Chin and Danny stare at each other. Danny gives the nod and Chin pulls open the front door allowing Danny to slip inside gun first. Chin follows.

\------------

Pete grabs two big handfuls of Steve’s shirt and hauls him forward, “Cicero trusted you, _I_ trusted you! I loved you man!” Peter shoves Steve backwards chair legs clattering loudly on the hard wood floor.

Steve looks at Pete with eyes gone cold, “Cicero and you were funding some of the worst this world has to offer.  Cicero was a villain and I stopped him just like I’m going to stop you.”

Pete’s face contorts into an ugly grin has he punches Steve in Jaw snapping his head back, an old ring opening the skin on Steve’s cheek.

\------------

Chin and Danny made their way silently through the house until they come upon the guard at the staircase. Danny and Chin grin at each other when they see the third and final guard walk up and start to chat with the staircase guard.  Chin and Danny get into position and just before the guard can turn away Chin and Danny jump them with stun guns.

Again they carefully lower them to the ground, tie them up and stash them in a closet. Chin retrieves a chair to lock the door in place.

 They both look up in alarm as they hear a solid nock against the floor upstairs.  They share an alarmed glance and begin to make their way up as quickly as they can without alerting anyone to their presence.

 Peter pulls out his .45 and places the barrel directly to Steve’s temple forcing his head to side and leaving a circular bruise. “You’re going to tell me everything the cops know about me and what you took. You’re going to do it right now or I put a bullet in your skull.”

Steve looks into Peter’s eyes and sees the truth there; that he had hurt this man not just financially, but emotionally and he was going to die for it.

\-------------

Danny and Chin follow the sound of Peter’s shouts to his office. They stop outside the door. Danny speaks low to Kono, “You got a visual in the room?”

“Yea, the blinds are wide open.” There’s a hitch in her breath, “Boss’s is tied to a chair in the center of the room. He looks like he’s been worked over pretty good. There are three hostels in the room; at least one is armed and has his gun pressed to McGarrett’s head. “

Chin and Danny listen to her assessment without taking their eyes off each other.  Danny checks his weapon for the third time, sucks in a breath and slowly releases it, “on three. One. Two. Three!”

Danny and Chin bust into the room identifying themselves as Five-0 and yelling that everyone drop their guns. The two goons quickly comply throwing down their guns and laying face down on the floor with their hands over their heads. Peter remains where he is with his gun to Steve’s head as he looks at Danny with surprise. “You’re a cop too?”

Danny’s gun points steadily at Peter’s chest, “Yep and that’s my partner you’ve got your gun pointed at. You all right Steve?”

Steve smirks at Danny, “oh great, just hanging out.”

Danny doesn’t acknowledge his levity, his entire focus on Pete and the gun in his hand. “Drop your gun and get on the floor or I put two in your chest.”

Peter shakes his head, “I don’t think so, I bet I can put him down before you get a single shot off.”

Danny grips his gun tighter, “Try it and I will put a bullet through your mouth, “it’s an instant kill, you’ll be dead before you hit the ground.”

Peter hesitates and looks down at Steve, “He really cares about you Teddy, does he know what you are?” Peter turns mocking eyes toward Danny, “I don’t think you’d be so quick to save him if you knew some of the things he’s done .” He grins manically at Danny, “and he calls me a villain.”

Danny glances down, Steve’s face has gone blank with features set in stone. “That may be so, but he’s not the one with his gun to someone’s head, now drop it or I drop you.”

Peter looks at the guns trained on him then down at the man who had destroyed his life not once but twice. Before he can make up his mind Chin put’s a bullet in his shoulder knocking him away from Steve. He tries to lift his gun again, but before he can train it on anyone he’s forced to the ground by Chin. He shrieks as his bleeding arm is forced behind his back and he’s zip stripped. Chin looks down at peter, “sorry brah, the surfing is good so I don’t have all day.”

Danny secures the rest of the goons before making his way over to Steve, his head hanging limply on his chest. Danny kneels down and begins to cut off his restraints, “you okay?”

Steve looks at Danny, his face unreadable, “next time I pick the bar.”

Danny’s smile is sunny and the best thing Steve has seen in days.

\------------

Danny and Steve pull into Steve’s drive way; Danny cuts the engine. Everything is quiet, only the tick of the cooling car disturbs the night. After they had freed Steve Kono had put a call in to HPD, a few minutes late the scene was exploding with activity. Steve was hustled off to the Paramedics.

Danny turns to where Steve is resting with his eyes closed, “are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? The Paramedics says you don’t have a concussion, but you should still probably get checkout.”

Steve opens one eye and looks at Danny, “I’m fine Danny.”

“We need to talk.”

Steve sighs, he had known that this was coming, but that didn’t stop the spike of fear in his stomach. “Yeah, uh.. . you want to come in?” Danny nods and they exit the car.

They make their way through Steve’s house toward the lanai, making a short stop in the kitchen to grab a few beers. They settle themselves in the chairs and both men sit silently taking in the night ocean.

Uncharacteristically it’s Steve who breaks the silence, “I would understand if you wanted to transfer back to the HPD.”

Danny looks down at the sand between his feet. It would be the smart thing to do for so many reasons. The last couple of days have been unreal. Sitting here next to Steve with a beer in his hand he can almost convince himself that none of it had happened. Almost.  “About what Peter said, about the things you’ve done…about what I saw you do…” Danny cuts himself off unsure of what he’s asking; unsure if even wants an answer.

Steve takes a pull from his beer and looks out into the ocean, “Marshall was a very bad man and to become him I had to tap into a part of myself that I hide, a part of myself I hate. I had hoped you would never have to see that side of me.”

Danny looks over at Steve _, really_ looks. He’s pale and his skin looks paper thin under the cuts and bruises, he’s got a scraggly beard growing from not shaving for the past couple of days. He looks exhausted, bone tired. “You’re right, Teddy Marshall was a very bad man, but Steve McGarrett is not.  Steve McGarrett is the best partner I’ve ever had and my friend. That man I’ve been with the last few days is not you. So _no_ I don’t want a transfer.  We’re partners and we stick together.”

Steve is staring at Danny, face the very picture of relief, “that’s good because I don’t think I could have let you go.”

Danny smiles, “well who could blame you my friend.” Some of the levity leaves him, “there’s going to be some serious fallout from this. We have a lot of explaining to do especially to Chin and Kono.”

Steve sighs, “I know.” Steve recalls the twin looks of disappointment on their faces when they were waiting for HPD to arrive. He would have to come up with one hell of an apology.

Danny drinks the rest of his beer in one go and stands, “I should head out.  It late and I pick up Grace tomorrow.”

Steve doesn’t look up, “yeah.”

Danny looks down at him, “maybe we can all do something together this weekend the whole team and Grace of course.”

Steve looks up and smiles small, but genuine, “yeah that’d be nice.”

“Okay well you get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early.” Danny walks back into the house.

“Yeah, see you.”

Steve doesn’t move to go inside, just kicks his feet up and watches the tide. Things hadn’t ended the way that he’d hoped, but far better than he had feared. He still has his team, still has Danny.  He might not call any of this a win, but he would call it a day.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Yea so that was a thing... a few other songs that go along with this are:The Mars Volta - Widow, Arctic monkeys - Temptation greats you like your naughty friend, and okgo - Last leaf. That is all.


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